Some residents treasure their hitching posts, carriage steps

Photos by Tom Rivers

RIDGEWAY – Occasionally people will stop at Homer McPherson’s home on Horan Road and ask if he wants to give up the carriage step and two hitching posts in the front yard.

McPherson, shown sitting on his front porch, gives them a resounding no.

When construction crews were installing water lines along the road a few years ago, McPherson worried the equipment might bang into a hitching post and break it. So he insisted the contractors pay extra attention to the relics from more than a century ago.

McPherson enjoys sitting on his porch and taking in the scene on the front yard at 3587 Horan Rd. The property was owned by his late wife Ruth’s family. McPherson said the hitching posts are in their original spots.

“I don’t know how deep they are, but they’ve never moved,” he said.

Another Ridgeway family has a little garden with flowers by their hitching post at 3608 Knowlesville Rd., not too far south of the Erie Canal.

Brenda Busch moved to the house in 2004. She is delighted to have the hitching post out front by the road.

“I love it,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind going back to those days.”

Busch, third from left, is pictured with family members, including Norman Karcher Sr., Marilyn Karcher, and Busch’s son Michael.